Hey, Folks!
Welcome one and all, to the ever-growing world of Enverdolmal!
Bluu here!
Your Black Guy Inna Bowtie!
I hope that this finds you all as well as humanly possible.
I just wanted to take a second to thank you all for your patience and to show you some love and appreciation by dropping a random sample of the great things that are to come! Lol.
I hope that you enjoy reading it just as much as I have enjoyed writing it, and that you stick around for the rest of what I have in store for you.
Until then?
Give Leafaria: A O.L.K. Side Story a read, and drink that up before the main dish!
It is the origin story of one of the main and most important characters of the series, folks!
It also introduces several characters outside of just Bastion and Himora who will carry over to the main-line O.L.K. books.
I love you all, and I can't thank you enough for 177.55K English Views, 86.72K Spanish Views, and an additional 66.01K German Views!
THAT'S 330,280K VIEWS IN TOTAL!
I don't have enough words to thank you all.
I will let my stories do so for me, lol.
See you all back here soon enough, yeah?
I present to you:
My path to travel. Part 2.
A One Last Knight Volume #02 Preview!
And off we go!
-----
A trio of children wandered haplessly through the thick, vibrant patch of clovers.
Their little backs bent in their hunt for the fabled and ever-elusive four-leafed variant.
Their eyes and attention strained to the brink in hopes of being first to claim their most sought-after prize.
The small group of friends had snuck out of their respective homes and gathered at the furthest edge of their little dorpie that morning with high hopes and empty gathering pouches.
They had sworn to return when and only when each of them had their own clover in hand.
Their own tiny token of luck.
Time had originally been on their side, but they all knew that their parents would be waking any moment now.
They would have to be away from their pursuit and heading back as soon as possible.
Thus far, only two of the three had found such a clover, and so, regardless of how weary they had all become in the last pair of hours, their frantic search would continue.
The group consisted of three.
Two boys and a girl.
The boys, a pair of rough and tumble brothers, the girl, a loner, and a tomboy tagalong.
It was she who was still without a clover.
She whose luck was still yet to be found.
It was she who was bent the lowest.
She who was on her hands and knees.
The brothers searched on as well, yet with their own treasures already secured, they were much less enthusiastic in the attempt.
Suddenly, the girl stopped what she was doing.
She could have sworn that she felt the ground trimmer if not just a bit.
Mayhap it was just her stomach.
She had skipped breakfast for this, it had better pay off...
She moved again, her mind returning to the task at hand.
Brushing aside one last swath of clovers, her heart skipped a beat as the object of her desires seemed to appear before her in the blink of an eye.
She froze.
Her mind couldn't process what she was looking at.
Shaking and on the verge of screaming, she slowly reached for the four-leafed clover.
Suddenly, the trimmers returned.
This time coming in rapid succession.
She thought at first that her heart was due to leap from her chest with excitement.
The trimmers intensified.
She glanced to her right at a small puddle amongst the clover patches.
The water within was vibrating.
Gently at first.
Then more and more until suddenly a dark shadow, large and looming, eclipsed her vision.
Behind her, the two boys screamed in unison.
She looked up...
She tried to scream, but abject fear trapped the sound in her tiny throat.
She pissed herself.
A massive, murky-green, four-fingered hand engulfed her.
She felt a bit of pressure as the hand squeezed shut.
Outside of that, her death was painless.
Regardless of the fact that they had found their clovers first, the boys would be far less fortunate.
-----
Yenoog plucked the first of the tiny humans from the clover patch and simply closed his fist.
The child's body barely gave any resistance, and several of her bones snapped at sharp angles, each piercing his palm.
He cared not.
Before the two remaining children could turn and run, Yenoog's right foot shot out and connected with the back of one of their tiny heads.
As if the mighty cyclops had kicked a pebble, the child's head flew away from everything that it was connected to.
The body ran several steps before falling over in a heap.
The final child made it just a bit further than his brother had.
He had turned to run, but a second before the other, thus his continued survival.
But alas,
This was not to last.
By his seventh step, his life was blasted away from behind as the raging monster launched its massive cudgel like a great and terrible javelin.
The bulbus, solid, wooden mass collided with the small body with such force that the boy's limbs went flying in all directions.
His death, as both the others, was far too quick to not be painless.
Mayhap some margin of luck had indeed found them all that day...
-----
My horse leaped forward,
My spurs digging a bit deeper into its flank than I had intended.
I felt bad for driving the mount on so fiercely, yet time was something that I and the burning dorpie before me had precious little of.
I was no more than 50 yards out and closing rapidly when a deep and rumbling roar rang out, reaching my ears and making my blood run cold.
The massive, muscled monster that was laying waste to the dorpie had been directly engaged by the small group of men who volunteered to defend this shabby little patch of land from such threats.
On a normal day, goblins, wild beasts, and the occasional band of bandits were hardly an issue.
But today was far from what any of the guardsmen would call normal.
Today was more akin to a nightmare.
I spurred the horse on even further.
Foam formed at the edges of its mouth, and it whinnied in protest, but time was against us.
30 yards.
I could see the group of men shifting and moving in unison as they rallied against the monster, one that I had no idea was called a "Cyclops".
Their swords and spears seemed rather ineffective at harming the lumbering thing, but in the numbers that they had, they were more than enough to at least distract it long enough for the scared and scattered villagers to make an escape.
The men knew to the last that none of them would make it out of this situation alive, but all had volunteered nonetheless.
All of the men who were not either fighting the monster of the fires that threatened their homes were aiding in the evacuation efforts.
15 yards.
I shifted the form of my buckler shield into that of a kite; the broader surface would be needed in the battle to come.
10 yards.
The smoke thickened as I drew closer; my horse coughed and wheezed in protest to the poor air quality.
I could hear one of the guards issuing commands to the 11 other men.
His voice deep, calm, and authoritative, cutting through the chaos that took place all around him.
Five yards.
The monster was fully encircled.
It swung its massive, deadly weapon to and fro, keeping the encroaching men at bay.
It may have been "trapped," but none of the men had the strength of arm alone or the courage to move for a lethal blow.
It was very nearly all that the group could do, just keeping the thing where it was, back and away from what was left of the small dorpie, and even more importantly, away from the retreating women, children, and elderly.
I was but a yard or so from the rear of the battle when I yanked hard on the reins, forcing my nag into a jolting halt.
I let the forward momentum launch me as I timed my leap.
The handful of men who had caught my approach stood wide-eyed as I burst into action without hesitation against the towering monster before them.
As I cleared my horse, I cocked back and launched my spear with my right arm, sending it diving toward the rear of the thing's head.
As if it had eyes in the back of its head, it spun far quicker than I had anticipated, swinging its mighty cleaver and effectively deflecting my attack.
My spear impaled the ground to the monster's left as it turned to meet me head-on.
Just as I had wanted.
I was its opponent now.
As it completed its turn, I saw its face for the first time for a split second before I raised my shield and slammed right into it at full speed.
Its ears were flat against its giant head; it had little to no lips to speak of, with a mouth full of jagged, chipped teeth and fangs, and the most shocking part of it all?
It had but a single massive, purple, staring eye.
-----
Yenoog was several things in this moment, all at once.
Angry.
Confused.
In pain.
But most of all?
Hungry.
His head was pounding.
The bright, mid-day sun was out and shining brightly, obscured only on occasion by a rising plume of smoke or a cloud of ash and soot.
It seared his eye.
It made the back of his throat itch something fierce.
All around him was fire and blades and screaming.
Chaos.
How had he gotten here?
He couldn't recall...
One moment, he had been lying down and slowly passing out for his hibernation.
His pile of old beast fur and the skins of lords-know-what beneath him.
His belly full.
His mind empty.
The next?
Well...
This.
He couldn't put it all together.
He couldn't make sense of it.
And just as his mind would begin to clear, his stomach would roar in protest, snapping him back into the hunger-fueled rage that had carried him this far.
Flashes of sunlight.
Bursts of heat.
Lungs full of smoke.
Cuts and bruises everywhere.
What was going on?
Yenoog felt his eye start to...
Vibrate?
His vision suddenly doubled, then tripled, then snapped back to just one massive 180-degree image.
Before Yenoog could process anything further, everything went black.
-----
Sweat dripped down the neck and back of the statue-still mage.
Valerex sat as still as death with his legs crossed and his hands on his knees, palm-side down.
He forced his mind to focus.
Things had accelerated a bit quicker than he had expected them to once he had forced his 'toy' to kill the lone guard and slaughter the small group of children.
Apparently, the dorpie had sent a search party out for the lot...
A search party that consisted of just over a dozen armed militia men.
No matter.
Valerex was sure that his Cyclops would be more than enough to deal with the lot of them.
Well, just as long as the Aetheral Mind Projectionist didn't overdo it...
He didn't care to lose himself in the mind and body of a filthy monster such as this.
Fack no.
He would have to make sure that he didn't funnel too much of his personal Aether into the simple things mind, or he could risk it gaining control via a less-than-stable tether.
THAT would be a major problem.
The dorpie had mustered a bit more of a defence than he had imagined it would so early in the day, but alas.
It seemed as if the hardy folk had more than enough experience with the likes of this one.
This large and looming cyclops.
Their moves were coordinated.
Their strategy was sound...
Valerex hated it...
It was a strong and direct opposite of the chaos that he sought.
That he needed.
He not only wanted the destruction,
He needed it.
It fueled him. Boosted his power. Made him whole.
But above all else, it pleased his master.
Valerex was not a solo act.
Not at all.
He was a small part of a much larger machine.
An intricate, deep plan that not even he knew all of the details of...
He knew what he needed to know, and what he didn't know?
He cared little for.
He was a simple man of simple means and even simpler needs.
Chaos...
Chaos made him happy.
Chaos made his Black-robed bosses happy.
One plus one was simply two.
He focused his Aetheral tether and took a handful of seconds to analyze the tactical situation that he had thrust his 'toy' into.
It was not good, and unbeknownst to him, it was soon to get much worse.
His cyclops was fully encircled by a dozen or so men, its considerable mass and size made for an easier target than he would have liked.
He only had so much time to inhibit this one's body, and he would be damned if he let it die before his task and fun were complete.
The first kill had been far too quick for the evil mage's liking.
So fast had it been that he had nearly missed it with an ill-timed blink!
The trio of children had taken a bit longer.
How sweet, how succulent, how potent their fear had been...
Valerex had even slowed just long enough to let the monster take a bite or two out of the body of the headless boy.
How utterly delicious!
He felt the...happiness?
It bubbled up within the cyclops' mind.
Valerex didn't think he would call it that exactly, but whatever it was, it made it that much easier for him to maintain control.
The thing even had a name.
"Yenoog, The Tough," it went as.
Apparently, it was one of eight such monsters, each with its own apparent title and territory within the bounds of Naeri.
That fact intrigued the A.M.P. considerably.
It would be very lucrative to his master...
But that was not now.
Valerex focused his mind. He had work to do.
The ring of militia men hand encircled him in his moment of introspection.
No big deal.
Valerex had learned very early on that Yenoog's strength was immense.
Beyond the ring of men, he could see women and children, and the elderly, scattering about in an attempt to grab what they could and get as far away from the creature as possible.
He would not have it.
With a roar and mighty stomp, Valerex urged his 'toy' forward.
Just then, he caught a flash of movement coming from behind him that was not familiar.
Not one of the militia men.
The cyclops had a dull yet throbbing proximity detection system in its brain that the mage was very pleased with.
He urged his captor on, urgently pushing the idea to "rotate quickly" into the monster's murky mind.
He had forgotten how agile the massive, muscular form was, and before he could fully issue the mental command, the thing was turning to face the oncoming threat.
Just as Yenoog's head swung to his left, he caught a glint in his impressively large perifocal view, and he brought his left arm up with astounding speed and down, deflecting the projectile harmlessly aside.
A split-second later, a shimmering shield slammed into his eye mid-blink.
-----
TO BE CONTINUED IN:
One Last Knight. A series of short stories. Volume #02. Smoke
Along with the valiant return of Bastion Ridder and all of our other favorites!
I can't wait to see you all back here at the gates to Enverdolmal soon enough!
Till then!?
GO READ LEAFARIA!
I think you'll like it lol.
It's not only the origin story of a handful of characters,
Including Bastion and Himora, but it is the original material that inspired O.L.K. from the start!
How crazy is that!?
I will see you all soon enough, yeah?
Safe travels out there, Folks.
And as always:
Stay safe.
Stay healthy.
Stay vigilant.
Your Black Guy Inna Bowtie!
Your Friend!
Your Knight!
Your Narrator!
-Redd.